When contemplating the historical efficacy of this nation’s secular shrine, the Australian War Memorial, it is best to stand out front in the middle of Anzac Parade, look up towards Mount Ainslie and imagine what was originally intended.

Anzac Parade is a 145-metre-wide, six-lane road. On Walter Griffin’s elaborate blueprint for his Canberra never built, the parade serves as the land axis linking Capital Hill, where federal parliament stands, and Mount Ainslie. A vast military parade ground—its red scoria scrunching officiously underfoot—bordered with white boxes filled with the dense, neat shrub hebe, serves as the road’s imposing median strip.